Renovamini: Ultra-Soft Premium Cotton T-Shirt
The motto is a single word: RENOVAMINI, meaning 'be renewed.'
I found the image in Jacob Typot's emblem book, Symbola diuina & humana, published in Prague in 1601.
Notice the feathers surrounding the bird. The symbol's true message begins with these shed feathers.
In the medieval bestiary tradition, people believed that as an eagle grew old, it would soar toward the sun. The sun's heat would burn away its old feathers, and then the eagle would dive into water to renew itself.
Of course, this isn't natural science; it's a belief and an allegory. In the early modern emblem world, this story was used to symbolize humanity leaving its old flaws behind for spiritual renewal.
Here, the sun represents divine truth. The direction the bird faces shows humanity turning toward God and purification.
The shed feathers are old habits, sins, and weaknesses. The emblem tells us that renewal starts first by leaving things behind.
RENOVAMINI turns this scene into a one-word piece of advice: shed your old self, turn your face to the light, and be renewed...